LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19413, 23 August 1926, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

1 Employment was found for 70 men last j week by the Auckland Labour Department. There were 637 unemployed on the register on Saturday, compared with 639 for the previous week. Of those seeking work, .501 were classed as fit for heavy labour. A quantity of mail, 169 bags, which missed connection with the Shaw, Savill liner Corinthic at Southampton, was forwarded by the Commonwealth and Dominion Line's motor-ship Port Dunedin two days later. The Port Dunedin made a faster voyage and reached Auckland on Saturday afternoon, whereas the Corinthic is not due until to-morrow fevening. Flood Conditions at Mercer are rapidly disappearing and motorists who reached the city last evening reported that the Waikato River was falling. Late yesterday afternoon there was bnly a short stretch of water on the Great South Road at Mercer. The deepest part was at the back of the railway station, where 9in. of water covered the road. This represented a fall of about 7in. since Friday morning.

After fine weather on Friday and Saturday the conditions at Auckland yesterday were very wet. Rain commenced falling heavily early in the morning and the showers continued all day, with the wind light and variable. The showers were lighter in the evening, but the sky was dull and threatening up to a late hour. The barometer, which registered 30.30 in. at midnight on Friday, fell to 29.95 in. by noon yesterday. It became steady after that hour,- but at midnight a slight fall to 29.90 in. had been recorded.

The present are notable. days in the history of the Great War,- It was on August 23, 1&14, that' the British came into contact with Von Kluck's hosts at Mons, and after fighting a memorable battle, commenced the retreat which ended in the victorious battle of the Marne. Yesterday was the eighth anniversary of the entry of the New Zealanders into the advance of 1918, when. ,the Germans were driven back in the battles which heralded the end of the war.

The closing hour? fop- tobacconist shops in Auckland will be altered from to-day. A Gazette n6tice states that as a result of a requisition from the majority of the tobacconists in the city, it has been decided' that the shops mentioned shall be closed on the evening of the working days as. follows:—On three-day& of the week at 8 j).m., and on two days'of the week at 10 p.m. ( It is .further provided that on the working days other than those observed as the statutory closing day in the period December 15 to January 10 of the. following year, both days inthere shall be no fixed closing hour; also, that on the working day immediately preceding any of the special days "mentioned in section 26 of the Shops and Offices Act, the closing hour shall lie 10 p.m., - ■ ;

The Hamilton Sunshine League has made a generous and enterprising "effort to m'ake cheerful the lot of patients at the Waikato A cinematograph plant has been installed at an outlay of £125, for the screening of .'programmes in the various ' The first showing was .held in the women's ward last week, and wiis much appreciated' by the patients and staff.

Work is steadily .proceeding on the tele-. phone service between Wellington and tile South Island. The laying of the trench cables between the Seddon and Wellington exchanges and the,extremities. oE the submarine portioa of the cable has not yet been completed, but the Lyall BayWellington portion, about four miles long, is nearly; conipleted. • There are some six miles of trentfh cable between Blind River and Seddon tp be laid, and the department is about to commence .this work. The laying of the trench cable is not essential until the telephone, " repeaters " are installed at Seddon and' Wellington. These are due to arrive in the Dominin about December next and their installation will be commenced in January. In the meantime Marlborough and Nelson are getting a service, but the range of the service cannot be extended bdyond Marlborough and Nelson until the repeaters have been installed.

A golfer had a curious experience en the Tauranga links on Thursday morning. He drove off the first : tee and barely had the ball come to rest an the fairway when half-a-dozen black-backed seagulls made a sudden descent on it. With much wrangling they disputed possession with one another for a few moments until one outmanoevnred the othersj seized the ball and quickly flew off with it. Another player had a similar experience on the Tauranga links earlier in the season.

The fact that tame rabbits had been taken into the Poverty Bay district was mentioned at a meeting, of the East Coast Rabbit Board a few days ago by the chairman, Mr. E. M. Hutchinson. He remarked that the boafd had no jurisdiction in a case where the rabbits were not imported for liberation. The lady whi> haft taken the rabbits to Gisborne had done so for the purpose of breeding them until she had sufficient to kill them oiff fof their skins, were white rabbits and he did not think 1 they would live if they escaped. ~ ,

''What is the verdict ?" came in throaty tones from the back of the Napier Supreme Court last week when a jury was waiting for the Judge to take his seat to receive a verdict. The started glance of all in Court quickly turned to the direction of the voice, to see a man sitting in the body of the court, evidently quite unabashed .that he had rudely disturbed t>>p dignity and overstepped the rules of etiquette of. the Court. Again came the same; query,, " What is the verdict ?" whereupon! a uniformed constable walked quietly- to where the offender was sitting and he was unceremoniously taken out of Court.

The humble threepenny bit has often been credited with being, financially,, the: church's one foundation, and, judging by the frequency with which the coin is found in the church collections, there seems to be some truth in the statement. In the collection of a South Canterbury church a number of coins have from time to time been found, says a Southern paper, any of which would have been eagerly exchanged for a threepenny piece. Eight silver pieces were in such a mutilated condition as to be quite valueless, and, perhaps, a reminder of the Indian hockey team's visit was seen in two Indian two anna pieces. Other foreign coins were a Hongkong one cent piece and a defaced Chinese coin of about the value of a penny. The whole of them would not have sufficed to purchase a penny stamp, yet the coins were evidently considered offerings to the church.